African Self-Consciousness, Misorientation Behavior, and a Self-Destructive Disorder: African American Male Crack-Cocaine Users

Abstract

Addiction to substances is among the self-destructive disordersfound in the Azibo nosology. It is theorized that underlying these disorders is psychological misorientation that results from a distortion in African Self-Consciousness (ASC). To explore ASC and the relationship between it and misorientation behavior for a population of 101 African American males suffering from crack-cocaine addiction, the ASC scale and a background questionnaire measuring misorientation behaviorwere administered, andfactorand chi-square analyses were conducted. The results ofafactor analysis of the ASC scale yielded twofactors and indicated that there may be some distortion inASCfor this population. Chi-square analyses revealed no significant difference in misorientation behavior between the first and fourth quartile groups created on the two factors. Chi square analyses conducted on the total sample classified into three ASC orientation groups (incorrect ASC orientation, ASC orientation unclear, ASC orientation correct); however, they did yield significant differences in misorientation behavior Results are discussed in terms of Kambon 's (1992) African personality theory, the Azibo nosology (Azibo, 1989, in press), and psychodynamics perhaps characteristic of this population.

Exploratory Factor Analysis of African Self-Consciousness Scale Scores

“…Table 4 presents the results of the cross-validation analyses. Table 5 displays a comparison of the two-factor structure of the current study with the two-factor structure obtained by Dixon and Azibo (1998), indicating that the present study produced similar results. Nine out of seventeen items on the first exploratory subsample factor (F1) matched items on Dixon and Azibo's ten-item first factor, "Value for African-Centered Institutions and Relationships".…”

“…This analysis produced further evidence for a two-factor model of the African Self-Consciousness Scale (ASCS; Baldwin & Bell, 1985), consistent with the results of Dixon and Azibo (1998). One factor of the ASCS, "Value Against Affirmative…”

“…The final list included the 42 items rated most relevant to African SelfConsciousness and agreed upon by a majority of judges. Using this scale, internal reliability alpha coefficients have been produced ranging from .61 to .89 (Baldwin & Bell, 1985;Dixon & Azibo, 1998;Stokes, Murray, Peacock, & Kaiser, 1994). Also, in a study of 109 African American college students, Baldwin and Bell (1985) calculated a test-retest reliability estimate of .90 over a six-week period.…”

“…The seven factors accounted for 78 percent of variance in scores on the ASCS, but internal consistency estimates were not reported. Dixon and Azibo (1998) conducted a principal components factor analysis using varimax rotation on ASCS scores obtained from 101 poly-addicted African American males. The mean and median age of the sample was 32 years.…”

“…Dixon and Azibo (1998) note that a weakness of the foregoing exploratory factor analyses of the ASCS is that the number of factors identified differs for each study, ranging from two to seven. This contradicts Dixon and Azibo's (1998) own assertion that all previous analyses confirm Baldwin and Bell's theory regarding the dimensions of African Self-Consciousness. Another limitation of the foregoing studies is that they fail to use an up-to-date methodology founded upon best practices of factor analysis.…”